en with their sweetness, and the golden light seemed aware of
their colour as it entered the garden softly through the screen of
boughs.

"Do you remember the first day, Ben?"

"The first day? That was when President lifted me on the wall--and even
the wall has gone."

"Did you dream then that you'd ever stand here with me like this?"

"I dreamed nothing else. I've never dreamed anything else."

"Then you aren't so very unhappy as long as we are together?"

"Not so unhappy as I might be, but, remember, I'm a man, Sally, and I
have failed."

"Yes, you're a man, and you couldn't be happy even with me--without
something else."

"The something else is a part of you. It belongs to you, and that's
mostly why I want to make good. These debts are like a dead weight--like
the Old Man of the Sea--on my shoulders. Until I'm able to shake them
off, I shall not stand up straight."

"I'm glad you've gone back to the railroad."

"There are a lot of men in the railroad, and very few places. The
General found me this job at six thousand a year, which is precious
little for a man of my earning capacity. They'll probably want to send
me down South to build up the traffic on the Tennessee and Carolina,--I
don't know. It will take me a month anyway to wind up my affairs and
start back with the road. Oh, it's going to be a long, hard pull when it
once begins."

Pressing her cheek to my arm, she rubbed it softly up and down with a
gentle caress. "Well, we'll pull it, never fear," she responded.

At our feet the twilight rose slowly from the sunken terrace, and the
perfume of the lilacs seemed to grow stronger as the light faded. For a
moment we stood drawn close together; then turning, with my arm still
about her, we went back over the broken pieces of pottery, and ascending
the steps, left the pearly afterglow and the fragrant stillness behind
us.

Half an hour later, when we were in the midst of our supper, which she
had served with gaiety and I had eaten with sadness, a hesitating knock
came at the door leading into the dim hall, and opening it with
surprise, I was confronted by a small, barefooted urchin, who stood,
like the resurrected image of my own childhood, holding a covered dish
at arm's length before him.

"If you please, ma'am," he said, under my shoulder, to Sally, who was
standing behind me, "ma's jest heard you'd moved over here, an' she's
sent you some waffles for supper."

"And what may ma's name be?" enq